The Riot Act

Hannover House | Release Date: September 14, 2018

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shpostalSep 17, 2018

This superb movie, one of the year's best, alongside "The BlacKKKlansman", "Hereditary", THE most frightening movie to come down the pike in years and "A Quiet Place" apparently isn't in wide release but it should be. The story uses aThis superb movie, one of the year's best, alongside "The BlacKKKlansman", "Hereditary", THE most frightening movie to come down the pike in years and "A Quiet Place" apparently isn't in wide release but it should be. The story uses a real life murder in Van Buren, Arkansas around the turn of the last century as a springboard for its plot, which is enthralling, smart and acted superbly. A prominent doctor and socialite somewhere around the turn of the last century owned the local theater that featured primarily opera as vaudeville and other entertainment acts were just starting to break out toward the midwest and points farther west. He became infuriated when he discovered his daughter was seeing a married man, which was cataclysmic in polite circles back then. The man was employed at the opera house, and the doctor murdered him but got away with it. "The Riot Act" takes the rest of the story as pure fiction, but does an absolutely brilliant job of telling its story, where certain affected parties begin a campaign of slow and deliberate revenge against the physician, a very selfish and arrogant creep interested only in himself. Downtown Van Buren today has many historical buildings, and the film was shot on location, setting the tone in subtle hues that work perfectly for the story. Even a short line railroad, the Arkansas and Missouri, which goes through my small home town about 50 miles north near Fayetteville, gets a plug for its excursion train with vintage cars from a few different decades that makes a trip from Springdale to Van Buren's depot about three times a week. No old locomotive, only the sound is heard on the movie since the A & M doesn't own a vintage locomotive, but that's fine. What makes the movie the excellent film it is involves not just fine acting, but a great plot and an ingenious climax as a slow and methodical system of revenge is levied against the self absorbed doctor, who has a few nasty secrets up his own sleeve. Plus, the film is careful not to stereotype Arkansans as the hillbilly barefoot and pregnant ignoramuses that plague its image, albeit to a lesser extent today thanks to the internet and slow influence of a more generic society that is whittling away at the cliches of old. While there certainly is a healthy population of the rural southern types, like all states that get lumped in with the redneck vision, there is plenty of very smart and very good people here too, and perhaps it's because the film treats the state with respect that I find it that much more alluring. To give away more details would spoil the picture, but if you get the opportunity, it's a must see. Get this movie into widespread distribution now!… Expand

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